The power of the cross. What does a cross say to you when you see one? As a piece of jewelry, as a wall ornament, as tag on a storefront or business card? Do you assume the owner of the object or business is a believer in Jesus? Or do you even give it a second thought?
Have you ever applied all the powerful meaning to the symbol that it is due? Have you assumed, upon seeing a pretty cross necklace, a cross on someone’s back windshield, or a cross tattooed on their arm that they are attempting to communicate: I am a believer in the Lord Jesus! I have been healed, forgiven, and made into a new creation! I place all my faith in Jesus of Nazareth. I not only believe he is who he says he is (Son of God), but I believe he will do what he says he will do (prepare a place in God’s Kingdom for me). I believe that he loves me and I love him with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength!
Maybe we don’t apply that much meaning to the crosses we decorate our lives with because we don’t live our lives with all that meaning. What if we did? I shared in an earlier blog that we recently moved into a new house. A neighbor came over to help me hang pictures. The wall art I have for the family room is predominately crosses or religious themed art work that people have given me or I have collected from churches or mission fields we served in. After about the 3rd box of crosses, she stood up straight, wiped strands of hair from her eyes and said, “You have a lot of crosses.” I laughed. I do. I got to thinking about that fact and said after a minute, “I guess I find my identity in the cross. It’s what I preach, it’s how I live, it’s who I am. Each cross reminds me of some relationship or some experience that has sharpened my faith.”
“That’s really neat,” she responded. “I have a lot of crosses too. I remember where I got most of them I think, but I don’t think I’ve put that much thought or meaning into it.”
Now, I realize that many of the crosses that decorate our environments are just that…decoration. A million people a day see them and one in a million gives it a second glance. Does that cheapen the cross? Does it lessen its value, its power, its meaning? Some have argued that it does. “We shouldn’t wear crosses as jewelry or clothing. Tattoos of crosses are inappropriate (at best), and even the number of crosses in a sanctuary should be limited!” And I agree that we should not cheapen such a beautiful symbol in gaudy or heretical displays.
But I would also argue that the power of the cross remains constant, even if the observer is unaware of it. Each cross proclaims: healing is available; faithfulness is possible; love is what matters most.
John 5: Do you want to be healed? That’s what Jesus asked the man who, for 38 years, had sat immobile at the healing pool of Bethesda. Unable to get to the water himself and without anyone to assist him (broken and lonely), he had resigned himself to a life of begging. Do you want to be healed? So resigned in fact, that when Jesus asked this question, his first response was not ‘Yes!’. It was to argue why he wasn’t already healed…he was a victim of his circumstance. I am glad Jesus’ question wasn’t then (nor is it today), “Why haven’t you healed yourself yet?” Jesus’ death on the cross makes healing available to every person: “But He (talking about Jesus) was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5)”
2 Timothy 2:13: “Even if we are faithless, God is still faithful because he cannot be false to himself.” Jesus’ death on the cross was not just necessary for our healing. It was also necessary for our atonement. Our Creator made a covenant with us. God has remained faithful. We have consistently broken the covenant. The terms of the covenant were death to all who broke the covenant. But God loved the world so much that came into the world as a human not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. God was able, by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to keep the terms of the covenant. And this makes a way for us to resume a faithful relationship with God…and everyone else in our lives.
1John 4:16: “… God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” The most powerful force in the universe is the love of God. Nothing is able to stand in the face of God’s love, and yet because of God’s love we are able to stand in the presence of God. A beautiful irony! Do you believe God loves you? You, with all your fears, failures, beauty, brains, scars, struggles, ideas, dreams…you? God loves you. It’s what matters most.
